LRM wrote:That sound nice, although i'm a bit scared of the shard part. In my ears, shard sounds a lot like instanced.

Yeah. Might not be the perfect wording. For the next alpha there is a good chance that each of those servers is very similar in nature. For the launch I'd like each of them to have different world maps - even though the core game rules will be the same. I'll explain the whole system in a future blog post but I'm trying hard not to make these just boring copies but actually different worlds where migrating between them is a pretty massive act and not just a simple teleport as in - for example - Life is Feudal.

LRM wrote:That sound nice, although i'm a bit scared of the shard part. In my ears, shard sounds a lot like instanced.

Yeah. Might not be the perfect wording. For the next alpha there is a good chance that each of those servers is very similar in nature. For the launch I'd like each of them to have different world maps - even though the core game rules will be the same. I'll explain the whole system in a future blog post but I'm trying hard not to make these just boring copies but actually different worlds where migrating between them is a pretty massive act and not just a simple teleport as in - for example - Life is Feudal.

Sounds interesting ... like connected sectors of the valley with limitations on travel inbetween. Will there be the posibility to move between shards at any time (only minor restrictions to limit CCU)? Otherwise it could fracture the playerbase which would be critical for an mmo indie game ...

LRM wrote:That sound nice, although i'm a bit scared of the shard part. In my ears, shard sounds a lot like instanced.

Yeah. Might not be the perfect wording. For the next alpha there is a good chance that each of those servers is very similar in nature. For the launch I'd like each of them to have different world maps - even though the core game rules will be the same. I'll explain the whole system in a future blog post but I'm trying hard not to make these just boring copies but actually different worlds where migrating between them is a pretty massive act and not just a simple teleport as in - for example - Life is Feudal.

Sounds interesting ... like connected sectors of the valley with limitations on travel inbetween. Will there be the posibility to move between shards at any time (only minor restrictions to limit CCU)? Otherwise it could fracture the playerbase which would be critical for an mmo indie game ...

It will not be completely unrestricted. There are likely cooldowns and resource import restriction. But yes - migrations will be possible.

Maybe you can use the shard system to offer shards for different regions (US, EU, Asia, ...) and different time slots all tied together into the same season. Even differing skill stats in different shards could work, if the basic progression setup is the same. Will the shards be integrated into the game e.g. via pathways with a shaman hut guarding the gate or will it just be something technical?

ManuKuma wrote:Maybe you can use the shard system to offer shards for different regions (US, EU, Asia, ...) and different time slots all tied together into the same season. Even differing skill stats in different shards could work, if the basic progression setup is the same. Will the shards be integrated into the game e.g. via pathways with a shaman hut guarding the gate or will it just be something technical?

Yeah, exactly. We plan to have worlds for specific regions (US, EU, Asia, ...) all connected in the same shard.

There will be an in-game mechanic for changing worlds - not sure yet if it'll be something mundane as a smuggler or something fancy as a shaman. Still working on the story design of that part. =D

dbltnk wrote:There will be an in-game mechanic for changing worlds - not sure yet if it'll be something mundane as a smuggler or something fancy as a shaman. Still working on the story design of that part. =D

BTW: any progress on lore or a chance for answers/comments in the lore thread? Any output by the story people, yet? Would love to get some lore input to help with storycrafting....